MDMA (Ecstasy)

With names like Adam, beans, hug, and love drug, who could resist such a drug? Despite being a popular drug in the dance club, rave, or even college scenes, there is now a growing popularity in many other social settings. So abusers are no longer just "partygoers" looking for a good time on their night out. Ecstasy is a synthetic drug with both stimulant and hallucinogenic effects. The most common way of taking the drug has been orally in a tablet form, but this method is slowly giving way to other methods including snorting, injecting, and anally.

Effects:

Due to it's chemical structure, it's properties resemble those of methamphetamine, methylenedioxyamphetmaine, and mescaline. These synthetic drugs are known producers of brain damage with an emphasis on degeneration of dopamine and serotonin neurons. The breakdown of dopaminergic neurons leads to the increase difficulty in regulating muscle movements, similar to motor disturbances of Parkinson's disease . Serotonin helps to regulate mood, aggression, sexual activity, sleep and pain sensitivity. In addition to damage to these neurons, it has been shown in primates that Ecstasy use has long term damaging effects on thought and memory.

Facts:

• Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) seized 949,257 tablets in 2000, increasing from 13,342 in 1996.
• Heaviest drug use was among 18 and 25 years, according to a 1998 survey conducted by the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA).
• The Monitoring the Future Study (MTF) reported an increase use among 8th, 10th and 12th graders from 1999 to 2000, with a subsequent increase in availability among 12th graders (40.1% to 51.4%).
• The MTF also reported a lower rate of usage among African American (1.3%) students when compared to white (7.6%) of Hispanic (10.6%) students.